Monthly Archives: December 2023

The sweet sadness of “All of Us Strangers” envelops the viewer with the warm melancholy of memory, which makes it the best “holiday” movie to have little to do with “the holidays.” It’s a tenderly-acted romantic fantasy about a lonely … Continue reading →

The rules on any adaptation of “The Three Musketeers” are that it’s got to be swashbuckling and that it must be fun. Disney landed the latter and made a decent showing of the former in their 1993 “Young Guns” version … Continue reading →

Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner are the big names on the cast of this best seller adaptation that tells the true story of the University of Washington men’s rowing team that won in the 1936 Nazi Olympics.

Describing “Saltburn” in cinema shorthand terms is so easy it almost gives away the game. Not that the plot is any big inscrutable secret. It’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” meets “Call Me By Your Name” — insidious, class conscious, with … Continue reading →

There was an accident involving her husband, one that involved brain damage that has left him speechless and borderline catatonic. When we see it recreated in a flashback, we understand her loyalty, why she’s sticking with him, monitoring his symptoms, … Continue reading →

Seeing the film adaptation of the stage musical based on an Alice Walker novel that Steven Spielberg filmed nearly 40 years ago, I found it helpful to remember that Taraji P, Henson can sing, and that David Alan Grier is … Continue reading →

A new tale, an interesting new cast and songs from the stage production give this holiday release the Big Christmas Musical spotlight this year. I never saw the original Broadway production back on the 2000s, haven’t read the book or … Continue reading →

“Our Son” is a child care/child custody soap opera about married gay couple who divorce and then fight over who gets primary custody of their son. It’s a sensitively-mounted drama that bears more than a passing resemblence to “Kramer vs. … Continue reading →

Hungary’s bid for Best International Feature Oscar is a lovely and poignant animated environmental parable built on Native American mythology. Director and co-writer Áron Gauder’s “Four Souls of Coyote” would also seem like a natural contender in a very weak … Continue reading →

Next year, the current state of the art of Godzilla CGI design teams up with the latest update of King Kong. A few actors are on board, too — Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Brian Tyree Henry.